В Нью-Йорке функционирует ночной клуб для ботаников: заниматься наукой - это круто
Заседания Тайного научного клуба проходят раз в месяц. На них собирается множество молодежи и любителей заумных бесед, которые жаждут в неформальной обстановке обсудить вопросы науки и техники
The Christian Science Monitor рассказывает о необычном и весьма успешном проекте, который был запущен три года назад в Нью-Йорке.
Каждую первую среду месяца к одному из популярных бруклинских клубов выстраивается длинная очередь. Около ста счастливцев попадают внутрь, остальных вежливо разворачивают у входа. Внутри царит непринужденная атмосфера, подают тематические напитки. Организатор Маргарет Миттельбах приглашает на сцену "хедлайнера" вечера - микробиолога из Университета Колумбии, специалиста по вертикальному земледелию в условиях экогородов будущего.
Замысел клуба появился после презентации книги Миттельбах и ее коллеги Майкла Крюдсона, которая собрала на удивление много народа. Свою задачу организаторы видят в популяризации науки, ее интеграции в массовую культуру. И им это удается - в Union Hall, где проходят ежемесячные собрания, уже не хватает места, чтобы вместить всех желающих.
В основе Тайного научного клуба лежит концепция "научного кафе", зародившаяся около десяти лет назад в Европе и теперь завоевавшая популярность по всему миру. Воплощаясь в небольших ресторанах, кафе, клубах, книжных магазинах и даже театрах, она позволяет наладить взаимодействие между кабинетными учеными и людьми, не имеющими отношения к науке.
Среди посетителей Тайного научного клуба - люди самых разных профессий; всех их объединяет одно: желание узнать что-нибудь новое, чему-нибудь научиться. Но что привлекает сюда докладчиков, среди которых попадаются и нобелевские лауреаты? Во всяком случае, не деньги, пишет The Christian Science Monitor. За время существования Тайного научного клуба здесь успели выступить десятки астрофизиков, палеонтологов и нейробиологов, и все они делали это бесплатно. Их влечет энергетика зала, отдача от просвещенной и весьма образованной аудитории - то, чего не бывает на традиционных публичных лекциях. На этой сцене "все ученые - рок-звезды", утверждает Миттельбах.
http://www.inopressa.ru/article/05Mar2009/csmonitor/science.html
Источник: The Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
вместе с уровнем холестерина снижается и удовольствие от секса
6 марта 2009 г.
Мэрилин Элиас | USA Today
Исследование статинов показало: вместе с уровнем холестерина снижается и удовольствие от секса
Популярные ныне статиновые препараты не только снижают уровень холестерина в крови, но и мешают пациентам наслаждаться сексом, утверждает USA Today, ссылаясь на Беатрис Голомб, сотрудницу медицинского факультета Университета Калифорнии - Сан-Диего.
В результате проведенного ею шестимесячного исследования выяснилось, что этот побочный эффект в наибольшей степени проявляется у мужчин: самое действенное лекарство на основе симвастатина снизило остроту их сексуальных ощущений чуть ли не вдвое. Правастатин же практически не влияет на половую сферу, но и в борьбе с холестерином не столь эффективен.
Ученые расходятся в точках зрения на природу возникновения этого побочного эффекта: Голомб связывает его с вызываемым статинами снижением концентрации коэнзима Q10; нейробиолог Бэрри Комисарук считает, что всему виной протекающие в мозгу химические процессы, которые еще только предстоит исследовать.
http://www.inopressa.ru/article/06Mar2009/usatoday/statin.html
Источник: USA Today
Statin study: Lower cholesterol, diminished joy of sex linked
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
The greater the drop in cholesterol from taking statin drugs, the more sexual pleasure is reduced, suggests a study due Friday at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago.
This may be the first research to pit statins against placebos to see how the blockbuster statins affect the ability to have orgasms. Statins generated about $13.1 billion in sales last year, according to IMS Health.
A BETTER LIFE: Reproductive health
Statins are valuable drugs that save lives, says Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the study. "But most doctors who prescribe them don't even ask about sexual function," she says, "and patients don't tend to spontaneously talk about it."
The findings should spur doctors to ask patients routinely about changes in sexual pleasure, says Mosca, because those with problems may want to try another statin or drop the medications.
The six-month, government-funded study involved more than 1,000 adults with high LDL — the bad cholesterol — but no heart disease. Participants were randomly selected to take either statins or a placebo. In the study, sexual pleasure sank along with LDL levels, says study leader Beatrice Golomb of the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.
Patients who took simvastatin, or Zocor, had the biggest LDL drop, but men rated their sexual pleasure as sinking by nearly half over the study period. Women were somewhat better off, "but some definitely were affected," Golomb says. Pravastatin, or Pravachol, the other statin tested, reduced LDL less and didn't have a significant effect on orgasms.
Some studies have found that statins improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow to the genital area, Golomb says. But she says the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. "Orgasm is a high-energy activity," so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure, she says.
Statins might influence orgasms by affecting brain chemistry, sensory nerves or the spinal cord, says neuroscientist Barry Komisaruk of Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "We need a lot more research to find out what's going on here," he says.
Everything in medicine has risks and benefits, says Tim Gardner, president of the American Heart Association. He's treated many with statins and seldom heard of bad sexual side effects.
Diet, weight loss and exercise should be tried before taking statins, he says. "We're not suggesting putting statins in the water for everybody willy-nilly. … Some could choose not to take them if they have bad side effects."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-05-statinsex_N.htm
Мэрилин Элиас | USA Today
Исследование статинов показало: вместе с уровнем холестерина снижается и удовольствие от секса
Популярные ныне статиновые препараты не только снижают уровень холестерина в крови, но и мешают пациентам наслаждаться сексом, утверждает USA Today, ссылаясь на Беатрис Голомб, сотрудницу медицинского факультета Университета Калифорнии - Сан-Диего.
В результате проведенного ею шестимесячного исследования выяснилось, что этот побочный эффект в наибольшей степени проявляется у мужчин: самое действенное лекарство на основе симвастатина снизило остроту их сексуальных ощущений чуть ли не вдвое. Правастатин же практически не влияет на половую сферу, но и в борьбе с холестерином не столь эффективен.
Ученые расходятся в точках зрения на природу возникновения этого побочного эффекта: Голомб связывает его с вызываемым статинами снижением концентрации коэнзима Q10; нейробиолог Бэрри Комисарук считает, что всему виной протекающие в мозгу химические процессы, которые еще только предстоит исследовать.
http://www.inopressa.ru/article/06Mar2009/usatoday/statin.html
Источник: USA Today
Statin study: Lower cholesterol, diminished joy of sex linked
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
The greater the drop in cholesterol from taking statin drugs, the more sexual pleasure is reduced, suggests a study due Friday at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago.
This may be the first research to pit statins against placebos to see how the blockbuster statins affect the ability to have orgasms. Statins generated about $13.1 billion in sales last year, according to IMS Health.
A BETTER LIFE: Reproductive health
Statins are valuable drugs that save lives, says Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the study. "But most doctors who prescribe them don't even ask about sexual function," she says, "and patients don't tend to spontaneously talk about it."
The findings should spur doctors to ask patients routinely about changes in sexual pleasure, says Mosca, because those with problems may want to try another statin or drop the medications.
The six-month, government-funded study involved more than 1,000 adults with high LDL — the bad cholesterol — but no heart disease. Participants were randomly selected to take either statins or a placebo. In the study, sexual pleasure sank along with LDL levels, says study leader Beatrice Golomb of the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.
Patients who took simvastatin, or Zocor, had the biggest LDL drop, but men rated their sexual pleasure as sinking by nearly half over the study period. Women were somewhat better off, "but some definitely were affected," Golomb says. Pravastatin, or Pravachol, the other statin tested, reduced LDL less and didn't have a significant effect on orgasms.
Some studies have found that statins improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow to the genital area, Golomb says. But she says the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. "Orgasm is a high-energy activity," so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure, she says.
Statins might influence orgasms by affecting brain chemistry, sensory nerves or the spinal cord, says neuroscientist Barry Komisaruk of Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "We need a lot more research to find out what's going on here," he says.
Everything in medicine has risks and benefits, says Tim Gardner, president of the American Heart Association. He's treated many with statins and seldom heard of bad sexual side effects.
Diet, weight loss and exercise should be tried before taking statins, he says. "We're not suggesting putting statins in the water for everybody willy-nilly. … Some could choose not to take them if they have bad side effects."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-05-statinsex_N.htm
Ожирение укорачивает жизнь на десять лет
http://www.inopressa.ru/article/18Mar2009/guardian/obese.html
Избыточный вес укорачивает жизнь человека на три года, а серьезное ожирение ведет к смерти на десять лет раньше срока, пишет газета The Guardian, ссылаясь на данные ученых Оксфордского университета.
Выводы, опубликованные он-лайн медицинским журналом Lancet, основаны на анализе данных почти миллиона людей, полученных в результате 57 различных исследований, проведенных в основном в Европе и в Северной Америке.
Ученые выявили, что люди с избыточным весом, индекс массы тела (ИМТ) которых колеблется в пределах от 30 до 35, умирают на три года раньше, чем это случилось бы при нормальном весе. Серьезное ожирение, при котором ИМТ колеблется в пределах от 40 до 50, сокращает жизнь на десять лет, пишет автор статьи Сара Босли.
Сэр Ричард Пето из отдела клинических исследований в Оксфорде, который проводил исследование, отметил, что убедить людей прекратить набирать вес нелегко. "Очень сложно сбросить вес, - отметил он. - Но прекратить набирать вес вполне возможно".
Источник: The Guardian
News
Sport
Comment
Culture
Business
Money
Life & style
Travel
Environment
Blogs
Video
Jobs
A-Z
News
Society
Health
Obese die up to 10 years early, study of a million people finds• Worse ahead 'when fat kids turn into fat adults'
• No excuse for smoking, says Oxford scientist
Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Wednesday 18 March 2009 larger | smaller Article historyModerate obesity shortens lives by three years and the seriously obese will die 10 years before they should, according to a definitive study by Oxford University researchers.
The study, published today online by the Lancet medical journal, is an analysis of data relating to nearly one million people worldwide. It is the largest ever investigation of how obesity affects mortality.
The analysis looked at the BMI (body mass index) of nearly a million people who had been weighed and measured in 57 separate studies, mostly in Europe and North America. On the BMI scale, calculated by dividing an individual's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres, more than 25 is considered overweight and more than 30 obese.
People in the study - funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK - were followed for up to 20 years, during which time 100,000 died.
The best BMI to have, the researchers found, is about 24 - the group with the lowest mortality rate. For somebody 5ft 7in (170cm) high, that would equate to a weight of about 70kg, or 11 stone.
People who were moderately obese, with a BMI of 30 to 35, which is now common, died three years earlier than they would have done at a normal weight. Severe obesity, with a BMI between 40 and 50, cut the lifespan by 10 years. That is as life-shortening as smoking - but severe obesity is still rare, affecting about 2% of the population.
Sir Richard Peto of Oxford's clinical trial service unit, who conducted the study, said efforts should be made to discourage people from piling on the pounds, which most often happens in Britain between the ages of 25 and 50. "It's very difficult to lose weight and keep it off," he said. "But stopping putting on weight is practicable."
People in their 20s with the optimum BMI of 24 would have to put on nearly a third of their body weight to be classed obese and double their size to become seriously obese. But Peto is concerned people should not get the wrong idea. Obesity kills, but only in extreme cases will it kill as fast as cigarettes.
"These are two things that you do have any choice about," Peto said. "I think smokers are getting the wrong message if they keep on smoking and think what matters is obesity. Smoking matters enormously more."
The study is the defining statement of the impact of obesity on lifespan as things are now, Peto said, but "we have got to keep this under observation".
During the earlier years of the study, there was no childhood obesity epidemic. "When we start getting fat kids turning into fat adults, we need to see what happens," he said. "Morbid obesity of 40 to 50 BMI now affects only 2% of adults in late middle age - but if it got to 20%, what would go with it?"
Most obese adults die of heart disease and stroke, although cancer figures are also rising. While obesity-related deaths from heart disease and stroke are on the increase, overall numbers have dropped. "Vascular death rates in middle age are less than half what they were in 1990," said Peto. The fall is partly due to better treatment, but more to do with the numbers who have stopped smoking.
Peto worries that people who are obese may begin to think their weight is a bigger problem than their cigarette habit. Recent stories about cancer prevention highlighted excess weight and drinking over the factor responsible for more cancers than any other single cause - smoking. "Stopping smoking works," he said. "Millions of people are alive now who wouldn't be if they hadn't stopped smoking."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/health-nhs-obesity-smoking/print
Избыточный вес укорачивает жизнь человека на три года, а серьезное ожирение ведет к смерти на десять лет раньше срока, пишет газета The Guardian, ссылаясь на данные ученых Оксфордского университета.
Выводы, опубликованные он-лайн медицинским журналом Lancet, основаны на анализе данных почти миллиона людей, полученных в результате 57 различных исследований, проведенных в основном в Европе и в Северной Америке.
Ученые выявили, что люди с избыточным весом, индекс массы тела (ИМТ) которых колеблется в пределах от 30 до 35, умирают на три года раньше, чем это случилось бы при нормальном весе. Серьезное ожирение, при котором ИМТ колеблется в пределах от 40 до 50, сокращает жизнь на десять лет, пишет автор статьи Сара Босли.
Сэр Ричард Пето из отдела клинических исследований в Оксфорде, который проводил исследование, отметил, что убедить людей прекратить набирать вес нелегко. "Очень сложно сбросить вес, - отметил он. - Но прекратить набирать вес вполне возможно".
Источник: The Guardian
News
Sport
Comment
Culture
Business
Money
Life & style
Travel
Environment
Blogs
Video
Jobs
A-Z
News
Society
Health
Obese die up to 10 years early, study of a million people finds• Worse ahead 'when fat kids turn into fat adults'
• No excuse for smoking, says Oxford scientist
Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Wednesday 18 March 2009 larger | smaller Article historyModerate obesity shortens lives by three years and the seriously obese will die 10 years before they should, according to a definitive study by Oxford University researchers.
The study, published today online by the Lancet medical journal, is an analysis of data relating to nearly one million people worldwide. It is the largest ever investigation of how obesity affects mortality.
The analysis looked at the BMI (body mass index) of nearly a million people who had been weighed and measured in 57 separate studies, mostly in Europe and North America. On the BMI scale, calculated by dividing an individual's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres, more than 25 is considered overweight and more than 30 obese.
People in the study - funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK - were followed for up to 20 years, during which time 100,000 died.
The best BMI to have, the researchers found, is about 24 - the group with the lowest mortality rate. For somebody 5ft 7in (170cm) high, that would equate to a weight of about 70kg, or 11 stone.
People who were moderately obese, with a BMI of 30 to 35, which is now common, died three years earlier than they would have done at a normal weight. Severe obesity, with a BMI between 40 and 50, cut the lifespan by 10 years. That is as life-shortening as smoking - but severe obesity is still rare, affecting about 2% of the population.
Sir Richard Peto of Oxford's clinical trial service unit, who conducted the study, said efforts should be made to discourage people from piling on the pounds, which most often happens in Britain between the ages of 25 and 50. "It's very difficult to lose weight and keep it off," he said. "But stopping putting on weight is practicable."
People in their 20s with the optimum BMI of 24 would have to put on nearly a third of their body weight to be classed obese and double their size to become seriously obese. But Peto is concerned people should not get the wrong idea. Obesity kills, but only in extreme cases will it kill as fast as cigarettes.
"These are two things that you do have any choice about," Peto said. "I think smokers are getting the wrong message if they keep on smoking and think what matters is obesity. Smoking matters enormously more."
The study is the defining statement of the impact of obesity on lifespan as things are now, Peto said, but "we have got to keep this under observation".
During the earlier years of the study, there was no childhood obesity epidemic. "When we start getting fat kids turning into fat adults, we need to see what happens," he said. "Morbid obesity of 40 to 50 BMI now affects only 2% of adults in late middle age - but if it got to 20%, what would go with it?"
Most obese adults die of heart disease and stroke, although cancer figures are also rising. While obesity-related deaths from heart disease and stroke are on the increase, overall numbers have dropped. "Vascular death rates in middle age are less than half what they were in 1990," said Peto. The fall is partly due to better treatment, but more to do with the numbers who have stopped smoking.
Peto worries that people who are obese may begin to think their weight is a bigger problem than their cigarette habit. Recent stories about cancer prevention highlighted excess weight and drinking over the factor responsible for more cancers than any other single cause - smoking. "Stopping smoking works," he said. "Millions of people are alive now who wouldn't be if they hadn't stopped smoking."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/health-nhs-obesity-smoking/print
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)